directed to secure, upon a firm basis, the
liberties of the people, while calculated to
increase their attachment to the person and
throne of their sovereign; and on this, the
first occasion of addressing you, I gladly
avail myself of the opportunity afforded by
it of expressing my earnest desire to co-
operate with you for the attainment of
those results.

One remarkable feature of superiority
distinguishes also your legislative powers
from those of the Councils of the neigh-
bouring British colonies, and of the General
Assembly of New Zealand, inasmuch as no
law enacted by you can be disallowed by
any authority out of the colony. Every
act of yours must thus be considered,
affirmed or disallowed, by those who, from
their intimate knowledge of the subject to
which it may relate, are the most competent
judges of its fitness.

With respect also to those questions ex-
cepted from your direct control, any
addresses which you may forward to the
Imperial Parliament, or to the General
Assembly, on any public matter affecting
the Province, will be entitled to, and will
undoubtedly receive, respectful considera-
tion.

In congratulating you upon the power
you thus possess of promoting the public
welfare of the Province, I cannot but regret
at the same time that some uncertainty as
to its undisturbed exercise may arise from
the fact that no session of the General
Assembly of the colony has yet been held;
by which the harmonious operation of the
New Constitution would have been much
facilitated, the limits of interference in the
action of the respective Legislatures de-
clared, and the possibility of conflicting
enactments avoided.

Prominently amongst the questions with
respect to which any conflict may arise, is
that of the Appropriation of the ordinary
Revenue of the Province. On this subject
instructions have been issued by his Ex-
cellency the Governor, in pursuance of
which the Revenue derived from the Customs
two-thirds of the receipts are paid to the
Treasurer of the Province, and one-third
remitted to Auckland for the use of the
General Government. A copy of these
instructions, with my reply thereto, will be
laid before you. Being unable, after the
most careful consideration of this most
important question, to discover any existing
authority for apportioning the Customs'
Revenue, other than that possessed by the

General Assembly, I cannot submit to you,
except at your express desire, any Bill for
appropriating that Revenue. This deter-
mination has been arrived at most unwil-
lingly, from the circumstance that many
subjects connected with the advancement of
the Province urgently demand a considerable
expenditure of its revenue; but on a
question of such paramount importance, and
one so capable of becoming a precedent for
the future, I am unable to act otherwise.

Should you be of opinion however, that
the peculiar position of the public affairs of
the Province would warrant you in appro-
priating that portion of the Customs' Re-
venue now paid to the Provincial Treasurer,
it will afford me much gratification to defer
to your wishes.

In framing an Appropriation Bill, the
strictest economy, consistent with the effi-
ciency of the public service, will be observed;
but it is most desirable that, to prevent any
uncertainty concerning such appropriation,
it should be confirmed by the General
Assembly at as early a period as possible.

Had I received any certain assurance that
the General Assembly would have met
immediately, I should have preferred, both
with reference to this question and many
others of great importance, that this Council
should not have assembled until the session
of the General Assembly was concluded,
but in the absence of such assurance I
deemed it my duty, at the earliest possible
moment, to call you together for the purpose
of considering what measures were ne-
cessary for promoting the public interests.
As it is however very inconvenient for those
members who are engaged in agricultural or
pastoral pursuits to attend at this season of
the year, I propose, a session of the
General Assembly have been held in the
interval, to summon you in April or May
next, about which time I believe the peri-
odical sittings of the Council might be most
advantageously held.

The necessity of providing for the proper
administration of the various departments
which have hitherto been controlled by the
Governor, but which are now transferred to
the Superintendent, will require your atten-
tive consideration. It is advisable that you
should declare, by specific Ordinances, the
manner in which the Executive Government
of the Province should be constituted, so as
to ensure that the public service may be
efficiently performed. With this object,
Bills have been prepared, which will shortly
be submitted to you.

With respect to the question of the cost
of certain departments being borne by the